


The End of a Dream

by caterinawrites



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Fix It Fic, Gen, Heartbreak, Oops, Rejection, Sort Of, and to allow her to move on, because canon is written by cowards, puppeteer 2.0 spoilers, this fic was mostly to make marinette less creepy, this turned out angstier than i intended
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-28 08:07:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19808182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caterinawrites/pseuds/caterinawrites
Summary: When Adrien decided to play a harmless joke on Marinette, he had no idea she'd confess her love to him. An alternate scenario for Puppeteer 2.0





	The End of a Dream

**Author's Note:**

> Uhhh, so I mostly wrote this with the intention of making Marinette act less creepy, but then I couldn't decide what to do with it after that, and several people in my discord wanted a chance for Marinette to get rejected and move on, so uhh that's what this became. I apologize in advance for sad XD

“I’m never gonna be able to tell him how I feel!” Marinette moaned, covering her face in the bathroom stall, and Tikki floated up with a sympathetic wince. “Every time I try to I panic and say the wrong thing because I’m so scared of being rejected.”

“Maybe you should try rehearsing what you’re going to say,” Tikki suggested. “If you’re afraid of messing up in the spur of the moment, then maybe you should act out the perfect scenario.”

“You mean act out my confession?” Marinette cocked a brow.

“Exactly! There are a lot of statues here that you could practice on, and then all you have to do is say the exact same thing to Adrien.” Tikki nodded, and Marinette pursed her lips.

“Okay, I can do this,” Marinette said, taking a deep breath and patting her cheeks.

Adrien’s fingers drummed his sides as he waited on the elevator to descend, and Plagg floated up beside him.

“Why does it bother you so much what this one girl thinks?” He asked, and Adrien flicked his gaze over to him.

“Because Marinette is important to me, she was one of my first friends at school, and if I did something to make her not like me then I want to fix it,” he said as the elevator dinged. “I want her to be comfortable around me, so I’m gonna try to make her feel better.”

“How do you plan to do that?” Plagg asked as the doors opened, and they stepped out.

“I’m gonna tell her jokes, make her laugh – like you do for me,” Adrien said, pausing as the bathroom door opened across the room, and Marinette stepped out.

“I can do this, I can do this, I can do this,” she chanted, and Adrien struck a pose.

“Just watch,” he whispered.

“But what are you doing?” Plagg’s eyes narrowed.

“Shh, she can’t know it’s me,” Adrien said, and Plagg ducked behind him as Marinette approached.

“Okay, I’ve got this. I can- ahh!” She startled upon seeing him, clutching her chest, but she eyed him a moment before letting out a breath. “It’s just a statue.”

Adrien remained frozen as she paced up to him, tilting her head to the side as she studied him.

“That’s strange. I didn’t notice this one the first time we came through,” she said, tapping her chin. “Maybe they fixed it and put it back out already.”

She surveyed him for a moment before a dreamy smile curled on her lips.

“It’s so life-like,” she remarked, reaching a hand out to brush his cheek before thinking better of it and lowering it back to her side. “Okay, Marinette, it’s just a statue, you can do this.”

She squared her shoulders and took a deep breath.

“Uh, hey, Adrien, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you,” she started, balling her hands into fists at her sides. “The truth is…Every day I see you, and I wish that you would look at me the way I look at you. You’re so kind and smart and good at everything. I know we’re only friends, but I can’t help wishing that we could be more than that because…I love you.” She paused to look up into his glassy stare, reaching a hand up to touch his hair. “Yeah, as if I could ever say that to your face. I can’t even get three sentences out around you. No wonder you never notice me. All I ever do is run away…”

She deflated, hugging her arms to her chest with a sigh, and Adrien flicked his gaze to her, stomach clenching at her dejected expression.

“Um,” he started, and she flicked her gaze back up to his before jumping back several feet with a shriek. “I’m sorry! It was a joke! I didn’t mean to-”

“That wasn’t funny!” She shouted, beating his chest with her fists before covering her face and rushing off.

Adrien’s heart sank, and he paced over to her hesitantly, sitting beside her as she hid her face.

“I’m really sorry. I just wanted to make you laugh, but it looks like I did the opposite. Even after all this time, I still don’t know how to be a good friend,” he said with a wince, and she peeked up at him with a tortured expression. “Did you mean all that? What you said about being in love with me?”

Marinette shifted her gaze to her lap, clenching her hands into fists and taking a deep breath.

“Yes,” she said, turning to face him. “Alya and Nino left us alone today so that I could tell you, but I panicked and ran away, so I decided to practice on a statue.”

“Oh…” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck with a wince. “I-I mean, it’s fine if you do. I don’t mind; I’m honored actually because you’re a good friend and really talented too, and I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but…I’m in love with someone else.”

“Yeah,” she said with a short laugh, shifting her gaze ahead and rubbing at her eye. “I kind of expected that.”

“I’m really sorry, Marinette-”

“It’s okay,” she said, standing up and throwing on a smile despite the tears welling in her eyes.

“The last thing I want to do is hurt you, Marinette. You are important to me, and your friendship means the world to me,” he insisted, and she bit her lip, averting her gaze up to the ceiling.

“I’m fine. Really,” she said, lowering her gaze back down to the man across the room. “Wait, is that-”

“Hawkmoth?” They said in unison just before he charged, and Adrien took a defensive position in front of her with Aurore’s umbrella.

“Run! I’ll hold him off!” He said, and a voice sounded over the speakers.

“Not this time! You’re going to stay here and play with me!”

“Manon?” Marinette gasped.

“No, I’m Puppeteer, and now you’re going to play with my statues!” She shouted back, and Marinette raced for the elevator. There was no time for a broken heart, she needed to transform!

***

Adrien climbed in after Marinette, and silence stretched between them as Gorilla started toward her house until it finally ate at him enough to speak.

“About earlier,” he started, and she stiffened beside him. “I really am sorry if I upset you. I was just trying to play a harmless joke to make you laugh. I had no idea that you were going to confess your feelings. I hope you don’t hate me.”

Marinette kept her gaze trained on her lap, twiddling her thumbs before risking a glance over at him. His head was low, posture slumped much like her own, and a dejected frown sagged his face. As much as his rejection hurt, she could tell that it was hurting him too, and she thought of the way she felt when she had to tell Chat Noir that she loved someone else. Hurting someone you cared about wasn’t easy; she knew that firsthand. She didn’t hate him. She couldn’t.

“I don’t,” she said quietly after a moment, and he glanced up at her.

“Marinette-”

“It’s okay,” she cut him off, but he shook his head.

“It’s not. I feel like I really hurt you,” he said, green eyes apologetic and sad.

“No, I mean…I am, but I’m not upset with you for saying how you feel.” She offered him a weak smile and a shrug.

“If it’s any consolation, I know how you feel,” he said, leaning against his fist and fixing his gaze on the passing buildings outside the window. “No matter how hard I try, the girl I like doesn’t return my feelings either.”

Marinette’s eyebrows raised at that, and he shifted to face her again.

“I really hope you find someone, Marinette,” he said, eyes shining with a sincerity she’d felt for Chat Noir as well, and she reached out to place a hand over his.

“I hope you do too, Adrien.”

When Gorilla pulled up to the curb in front of the bakery, Marinette climbed out, hand hesitating briefly on the door.

“See you tomorrow.” Adrien waved, and Marinette gave a half-wave in return.

“Yeah,” she said before shutting the door and heading inside.

Everything in her felt off, her whole body wracked with a numbness as she climbed the stairs to her room, but each step brought more pain as if pieces of her heart were chipping away one-by-one until she finally reached the top. A thousand faces stared back at her, faces she’d admired for so long. They’d brought her so much joy, hoping and dreaming that someday she could be with him, but now as she looked at them, she felt the weight of his words crashing down on her.

“ _I’m in love with someone else._ ”

A warmth tickled her left cheek first followed by her right, and her whole countenance began to shake as she sank to her knees.

Maybe it was better this way. At least, she knew how he felt about her now, and despite her understanding of his feelings, she couldn’t help but wish that things had turned out differently. That he had loved her instead, and that they really could have been together.

But such dreams were not hers to have, nor would they ever be.

Maybe it was time to move on. Time to take down all of those pictures and let him go, but the thought of it made her feel like she was ripping down a part of herself along with them. All those months she’d poured her heart and soul into them, and now in one brief moment, all of those dreams had turned to dust. Everyone had to wake up sometime.

She supposed it didn’t have to end if she didn’t want it to. She could always just go back to sleep and hope for a different ending like Chat Noir, but she felt that it would only make things worse in the end. It was time to move on, and who was to say that the next time she slept, she wouldn’t have a new dream more pleasant than the last? But even still, she wanted this dream to last a moment longer. Just a split second.

But it couldn’t, and she knew that. And that was just as well. It had been a nice dream while it lasted.

Tomorrow, she decided. Tomorrow would be the day she moved on, but as for today, today she would just cry.

**Author's Note:**

> After which Alya came over and they ate lots of ice cream.  
> I know they'll never do it in canon cause they have to drag the square out and keep them hanging on, but Idk I don't think there's anything wrong with having them move on for a time. They can always find each other again.


End file.
